


Making Arrangements: Scrapbook

by CrownsofLaurels (laurel1020)



Series: Making Arrangements [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, F/M, Female Uzumaki Naruto, Parent Hatake Kakashi, Women Being Awesome, excessive fluffiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-24 20:32:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6165871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurel1020/pseuds/CrownsofLaurels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cuts/alternate scenes, story notes, and sequel drabbles to Making Arrangements. If you have not read Making Arrangements, this will make absolutely no sense.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Visiting Hours

**Author's Note:**

> Scrapped excerpt from Ch 20, Konohamaru and Co. visit Naruto in the hospital.

“—And then you spent five hours with a power washer, washing the graffiti off the stadium walls.”

“And then we spent five hours with a power washer cleaning up the graffiti,” muttered Konohamaru, with a bitter glare over his shoulder at the Academy teacher grading papers next to Kakashi in the corner.

“But then last week we were assigned to catch that shitty—“

“Language,” corrected Iruka half-heartedly.

Konohamauru puffed out his cheeks, “stupid cat, you know the one that we all think is a demon—“

“Hyperbole, Konohamaru,” scolded the chunin.

“Iruka-sensei!” The genin whirled about with a whine, “You’re ruining all my cool stories!”

“What?” Iruka asked absent-mindedly, raising his head in confusion and scratching his cheek while forgetting he was holding a grading pen, leaving a red mark on his face. 

Moegi yawned as she flipped through a fashion magazine. Udon tried, unsuccessfully, to look like he wasn’t reading Kakashi’s notes over his shoulder.

“You’re all so boring,” wailed Konohamaru bitterly, falling against the bed with a huff, “No wonder she won’t wake up, nothing interesting ever happens here.”


	2. True Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alt ending/beginning of Ch 20/21. This was one of the first scenes planned in the story, but when it came time to put it in, it didn't 'fit' anymore. However, since it was already written, here you go.

Kurenai blinked tiredly at her alarm clock, but that didn’t stop it from reporting that it was four am in the morning, or stop the pounding coming from the window of her balcony.

She groaned and pulled herself out of her warm, comfortable bed, pulling on a robe and hastily leaving the room, praying that whoever was making that racket didn’t wake her daughter . Or else, she thought darkly toward herself, fingering the kunai she shoved into the stash of her robe.

Her bitter resentment quickly faded into bafflement when she realized it was Hatake Kakashi who was fidgeting awkwardly on her balcony and banging on her windows. She hadn’t seen him since their talk at the hospital—

“Stop knocking,” she shushed him as she opened the door, ushering him in, “What happened, is Naruto fine?”

“She’s fine,” muttered Kakashi, storming into her apartment and immediately starting to pace, “She’s sleeping.”

“Sleeping?” Kurenai’s heart fell in dismay, “I thought she’d woken up, Konohamaru-kun was so excited yesterday—“

“No, no,” Kakashi waved aside her concerns as he continued to pace, barefoot, back and forth in her apartment. “Perfectly normal sleeping, she’s fine.”

“But you’re not,” mused Kurenai, watching the stressed out ninja run his hands through his hair in aggravation—making it look even more unkempt than unusual. He was missing his vest in addition to his shoes and, come to think of it—“Kakashi,” Kurenai queried, “is your shirt inside out?”

Kakashi paused, and then twisted, as if he could look over his shoulder, “Probably,” he settled for admitting, before dropping to her couch with a slightly dazed expression.

Kurenai sank into the arm chair across from him, trying to hide how eager she was to hear whatever bizarre scenario had led to his state, watching as he opened his mouth to explain—only for him to snap it shut as he blanched and made a bee line for her kitchen.

“No,” hissed Kurenai, grabbing unsuccessfully at the back of the copy ninja’s shirt as he dove for her pantry, pulling the door shut tight behind him. “Get out of there right now, you ridiculous—“

“Kurenai-san?” came a shy, inquiring voice from the living room.

Kurenai spun around as Naruto came through the balcony door, pulling what had to be one of Kakashi’s robes close around her. Kurenai smothered her own bubbling questions when she caught a look at the genuine distress on the girl’s face.

“You’re up already,” pondered Naruto, looking about the apartment idly.

Kurenai made a vague noise of agreement, “couldn’t sleep, got up for a drink,” she poured herself a glass of water and cleared her throat, “want some?”

“No, thank you,” mumbled Naruto distractedly as she settled down into the same spot Kakashi had only a few moments ago.

Kurenai hummed in concern, “It’s so good to see you up, everyone was worried.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” said the girl, biting her lip and plucking guiltily at the edges of the throw blanket.

“If something has you this upset, maybe you should think on it and come back later when your head is clear,” suggested Kurenai, kicking the pantry door as she passed it.

“No,” sniffed Naruto, ignoring the woman’s odd behavior, “I kind of have an immediate problem I need help with,” she hugged one of the couch pillows against her.

“Oh, well,” Kurenai raised her eyes to the ceiling and wondered how she found herself in these situations. She took a seat in her chair, “let’s just keep it down then so we don’t wake the baby,” she finished weakly.

Naruto nodded in acquiescence, “Kurenai-san, I kind-of, well,” the blonde struggled with her words, finally stammering something out which was completely incoherent, as Naruto had buried her face against the pillow—a habit that by now Kurenai realized the girl engaged in when she was nervous about talking about intimate details of her personal life.

Suddenly, it dawned on Kurenai what the reason might be that Naruto was curled up in Kakashi’s clothes on her couch and Hatake Kakashi himself was hiding in her pantry barefoot, shirt inside out, and acting like he was holding and bottle of sake and running from Tsunade after she’d been on a month-long stint of forced sobriety.

“Oh,” said Kurenai, carefully clearing any expression from her face and trying to step into the role of non-judgmental, older sister. She’d basically been asking for this, after all, “So you had sex with Kakashi, then?”

Naruto made an affirmative squeak, still attempting to smother herself with Kurenai’s decorative pillows.

Kurenai sipped from her glass of water, sighing mournfully when she remembered it was water, not coffee, and that she couldn’t actually get coffee because her pantry was currently infested with a jōnin having a panic attack while his girlfriend was squeaking incoherently on her couch.

This was her life.

“Well,” Kurenai said, striving to keep her tone light and sincere, “What’s wrong then?”

Naruto raised a bright red face up to greet her, eyes scrunched as she sniffed tearfully, “He’s gone!” She wailed, following it up with a loud hiccough.

“Oh,” Kurenai gasped, putting down her glass and crossing to sit next to the girl, patting her on the back gently. “Shh, it’s ok, sweetheart, it’s fine,” she babbled nonsensically as she mentally cursed the moronic man still hiding in her pantry. Soon enough, Naruto’s cries had trailed off to sniffles and she was calm enough to keep talking.

“He could have been summoned by the Hokage, or maybe he just needed some space to think, maybe he went to the Memorial Stone,” Kurenai tried to provide as many explanations as possible, hoping the girl would latch onto one of them. “Maybe he’s just as nervous as you are right now and having a mental breakdown to his own confidante.”

That got a giggle from the girl. “Sorry,” said the blonde with a sniff, “I just can’t see him having a heart-to-heart about this with Gai-san.”

“Yes,” agreed Kurenai, “that would be a bit counter-productive.” She rubbed the blonde’s back a bit more, waiting for the girl’s hitched breath to even out. Suddenly, Kurenai had a very, very wicked idea. She smiled gently at the girl on her sofa, “I hate to ask, I know you don’t like talking about personal details, but did anything happen last night?”

Naruto’s face scrunched in confusion.

“You know,” Kurenai prompted, “did anything happen last night that might have made him feel awkward about seeing you today?”

“Other than,” Naruto squeaked, “the sex?”

Kurenai nodded, “Sometimes, men get nervous or anxious about sex themselves, and have trouble, you know, performing in bed. They can get really embarrassed about those types of things, even though it’s not that big a deal, they feel like it is. So, did anything happen that might make Kakashi embarrassed to see you today?”

Naruto cocked her head to the side, “No. Not really?”

“Not really?” Kurenai prompted, encouraging the girl to go on.

“Well,” Naruto blushed, stammering, “I mean, it was over quickly, more quickly than I thought it would be. I just thought it would last longer,” her words surged forward, unable to stop now that she’d started. “I mean, everyone makes such a big deal of it, I thought it’d—but it’s not like I had anything to measure against,” continued the girl, flustered, “It was just shorter than I expected.”

Kurenai swallowed her laughter, pressing her fingers to her lips to hide her grin, “I see. That can be normal, it doesn’t actually take that long, and it goes quicker the more excited a person is.”

Naruto gave a jerky nod, cheeks a pretty mauve.

“And other than the length,” continued Kurenai, “did you have any issues?”

The chūnin shook her head, “No, no.” She swallowed. “Kakashi was very considerate.”

“Well then,” commented Kurenai in what she hoped was a mild tone, “I think you should go back to bed and wait for Kakashi to come home. I think you’ll see then that wherever he’s been, it had nothing to do with being upset at you, ok?”

“Ok.” Agreed Naruto wearily, standing up and giving Kurenai one last hug before she slipped out the balcony door.

Kurenai puttered about the kitchen, washing her glass and putting it back in the cupboard before finally going over to the pantry and opening the door, thankfully meeting no resistance this time.

Kakashi glared balefully up at her.

“I didn’t know you were such a gentleman in bed, Kakashi,” Kurenai fluttered her eyelashes at him in mock flirtation.

“That was completely uncalled for,” grumbled the jōnin.

“Said the man hiding in my panty while his girlfriend cried on my sofa because she thought she’d ruined their relationship by having sex,” retorted Kurenai, kicking him lightly in the shin.

Kakashi unfolded from the cupboard and slinked out into the kitchen. He looked around for a few seconds before slipping his hands into his pockets, looking a bit lost. “What do I do now?”

Kurenai gaped. “Well,” said the woman, putting her hands on her hips, “To start with you should get your ass back over to your house, where you need to reassure the beautiful girl who loves you and is sleeping naked in your bed that there is nothing wrong with what the two of you did last night.”

She picked up a dish rag and swatted him as he retreated from her kitchen and out the balcony door.

“And try not to be so considerate,” she hollered after him, “she’s a ninja, she’s not gonna break!”

Kurenai smiled winningly as the neighbor who lived underneath stuck their head out the window and looked up at her resentfully.

She hummed as she re-latched the lock on the door and retreated into her dark bedroom. Hoping to catch an hour or two more of rest before—

“Momma!”

Kurenai pressed her face against her pillow and sighed.


	3. Antagonistic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, all of the Root remnants had detailed back stories, the majority of which got completely scrapped and went unmentioned in the story because I couldn't figure out how to include it. Here are the development notes on those characters. Note that certain details about the characters changed by the time the final chapter was written.

Goro Hyuuga (23): As the name implies, the fifth son of a branch family member. Often neglected in training, was misplaced and picked up by Danzo during the nine-tails attack, prior to being branded. Wears a white cloth around his eyes (originally used byakgun during fights, but was blinded on a mission---intent to prove usefulness to Danzo so he learned to fight while blind). Was written off as dead during the Kyuubi attack and then brainwashed in the Root program by Danzo. The leader of the little rag tag group. Headed up a lot of operations outside Konoha for Danzo, was away from Konoha when Danzo was killed. Hebiko was part of Goro’s permanent team. His orders were to collect and coordinate Konoha’s foreign intelligence and eliminate outside threats to Konoha. He’s pretty much operating independently under the same orders. He’s rebuilding root, and for that he needs Root members. He knows better than to pull from Konoha at the moment, so he’s taking children from foreign powers he considers to owe reparations to Konoha. He’s taking their children to train and release back into their hometown populations. The children will return under the story of being freed from slavers and finding their way home, but will serve as Root members loyal to Konoha in foreign territory.

• Hebiko (age unknown): A failed experiment of Orochimaru’s, picked up by Danzo when Orochimaru was chased out of the village. Rather grotesque looking, more snake than man. Scales and slitted eyes. Doesn’t speak independently, but carries out orders well. Tends to do the surveillance work. Has a venomous bite (specializes in different venoms). Has always worked beside and for Goro. (Was Goro’s eyes when Goro adapted to fighting with the blindfold and since he seems to unnerve other operatives, Danzo let the two continue to work together). Is more loyal to Goro than to Danzo. 

• Masao Hashimoto (65): Was an only child. Mother was a ninja, but father was a merchant. Danzo’s historian. Has a photographic memory, was in charge of Danzo’s records. Is a sealing expert. Downplayed his skills to Sarutobi. Was a career paper nin, very early it was found he didn’t have the temperament for battle (despite being able to perfectly recall and recite everything, he froze when it came to application). He works in intelligence as a code-holder, he knew all the codes during Sarutobi’s reign, but as his age increased, he played up failing eye-sight, which cut into his usefulness in the intelligence department. Really, his eye-sight is fine. He just let Danzo pretty-talk him into joining Danzo’s cause. He picked up sealing as his work in the intelligence department lessened. He’s very good at memorization. While he doesn’t have the instinctive flair for seals that an Uzumaki or Minato had, he has decades of memorized code and text and seal patterns from which to draw upon. He designed the seal which Danzo used on the root members and applied it to them. He has created a modified version of this seal for the children they are currently training. He’s old and tired, but so used to following orders at this point that its harder not to. He never really learned to think for himself. As the head of the code department, he intercepted Root reports and interpreted them for Danzo, and sent out instructions. This is how Goro knows Masao. Goro assumed authority over him when Danzo fell. Masao willingly went along, he had no ability to fight/resist and no one missed him as he was pretty much retired. It was assumed he’d fallen in the chaos of the war, just a harmless old man and another casualty. 

• Mariko (43): A village orphan of unknown parentage. Passed the final genin exam, but failed her instructor’s test. Went to work at the hospital, where she became a nurse. She was nothing special with all her techniques, average in her healing abilities. Despite this, her work was meticulous and she was known to never make an error. She had access to all the records because of her seniority on the staff and her position as the highest level supervisor on her shift. She was disenchanted with the whole shinobi-system, most of her friends were slaughtered on the front lines in war. She’s very disassociated from reality. She’s not quite a sociopath, she doesn’t have the risk-taking behaviors. However, how she’s dealt with all the death and pain is that she’s just completely compartmentalized her emotions until she can’t access them anymore. She began to work for Danzo not realizing that he was going against Sarutobi’s orders. After the Uchiha massacre, she realized that Danzo couldn’t be asking her to doctor all these records in good faith. She couldn’t really bring herself to care. Perhaps it was her way of rebelling against the caste system that labeled her as a failure before she was a teenager, and yet relies on her to hold it together and fix it whenever it falls apart. She has a fatal disease (non-contagious). It’s genetic and affects muscle function. It’s slowly sapping her energy. As a medic-nin, she’s been able to stave it off and minimize its affects, but she’s probably got 5 years left tops, and she knows it. It makes her sympathize, just a bit, with those who are near death and can’t control the pain the way she can. She often overdoses terminal patients, as she aged she asked for their permission less and less. She sees it as being useful, but it was clear that with Shizune and Tsunade showing more and more interest in the hospital and the nursing staff that she wasn’t going to be allowed to continue her work there. Shizune was beginning to notice that something wasn’t quite right with Mariko and some suspicious timing when mortally wounded patients were dying on Mariko’s shifts, so when Goro offered Mariko alternative employment, and a chance to still be useful, Mariko left (and helped herself to medical supplies that might be needed for Goro’s plans).


	4. The Name Game

Strangely enough, the first person to ask was Anko.

It was the middle of the afternoon and Naruto had hidden away in the jōnin lounge with some miso ramen that Ayame-nee-san had been kind enough to box up and smuggle to her. Naruto had a perfectly healthy lunch of course (everything she ate nowadays was _perfectly healthy_ ), but she’d felt the stirrings of hunger about three hours later which had very suddenly flared up into ‘must eat now _or else_.’ She’d slipped away from Tsunade’s meeting with the Waterfall representatives when the older blonde’s back was turned and Shizune could do nothing else but show her the faintest scowl of disproval.

Naruto crept carefully to the jōnin lounge because it was usually empty this time of day. To her surprise, the purple haired kunoichi had taken over the room, but since the woman was doing her best to consume an entire box of pocky while watching a marathon of ‘Shadows of Our Lives’ (the longest running Shinobi themed soap opera in the history of the Elemental Nations), Naruto thought she was in good company.

Naruto carefully didn’t look at the sign above the television which not-so-kindly reminded the jōnin that the television was to be used for news networks or live security feeds only. Instead, she heated up her contraband meal in the microwave before joining Anko on the scuffed up couch.

“So,” drawled Anko around the piece of pocky in her mouth. “Have you thought of names yet?”

Naruto blinked owlishly at the other woman, noodle dangling carelessly from her mouth.

She didn’t ask how Anko knew. Everyone knew by now, even though she wasn’t even showing yet and probably wouldn’t be for another month or so. That’s what happened when you were social with the Inuzuka clan, who weren’t exactly known for keeping their traps shut about what they viewed to be good news.

“I dunno,” Naruto finally responded, before her hunger drove her to continue consuming her meal. “We haven’t talked about it yet.”

“Really?” Anko peered curiously at her. “Usually parents are all over that shit.”

Naruto snorted. “I’m still working on getting him to realize that two jōnin, eight ninken, a baby and an occasional toad can’t fit in a one bedroom apartment. The name-thing is a bit lower down on the priority list.”

“Ha.” Anko barked a laugh. “Bachelor pad getting a bit cramped then?”

“Something like that.” Naruto voiced her agreement around a mouthful of ramen.

“Naruto where—“ the door flew open and both women froze guiltily, suddenly faced with venomously narrowed green eyes.

“There you are.” Sakura’s words came out in a flat hiss and she stalked forward.

Anko relaxed, sinking back into the couch once she was sure the medic-nin’s ire wasn’t directed to her own person.

Naruto hastily swallowed her current bite of food and stuffed another in her mouth, as if in fear it might be her last.

“Shizune-san said you stepped out for a snack but I noticed you left your salad in the fridge—stop eating that!” Sakura snapped and wrestled the ramen container away from the blonde, exchanging it for the, in the blonde’s opinion, less appetizing vegetable dish.

Anko munched on her pocky and enjoyed the entertainment.

“You can’t keep eating—“

“I’m an adult!”

“The salt content—“

“—A grown woman should—“

“Need more vegetables, I even put oranges—“

“—be perfectly cable of choosing her own food!”

“—so it’s perfectly healthy!”

Both women finished shouting at each other and sank into the couch cushions with mutual huffs of annoyance.

Naruto plucked up a slice of orange and sucked on it sulkily.

“You two are hysterical,” said Anko dryly as she turned up the volume of her soap opera. “You should have your own show.”

The three woman watched the last half of the show---in which Mamoru was forced to confess to his fiancé who’d just woken from her coma that he’d committed to a political marriage in light of her likely death—in a drained, companionable silence.

Anko snuck Naruto a piece of pocky in a commercial break.

“Anko-san,” Sakura eventually asked, “Weren’t you supposed to be substituting for Shiranui-san while he’s out, teaching his genin?”

“I am,” cackled Anko, grin dark as she watched Mamoru’s former fiancé plot her revenge. “We’re playing hide and seek. They really suck at it.”

Sakura rubbed her temple. “What were you talking about when I came in, anyway?”

“Nothing,” said Naruto.

“Baby names!” Crowed Anko, with too much cheer. “If it’s a girl they’re naming it after me.”

“They are not,” sniffed Sakura, crossing her arms. “I’m going to be godmother, if it’s named in honor of a woman it should be me.” Sakura tilted her head and pondered the issue for a moment before adding, “Or maybe Naruto’s mother, that would be ok too.”

Naruto rolled her eyes between them as she forced herself to eat the green things in the salad. “We’re not naming the baby after anyone.” She didn’t remind Sakura that they hadn’t told her she could be godmother, Sakura had just loudly claimed the title with a ferocity that cowed all potential opponents. At this point, they were just rolling with it.

“You said you hadn’t talked about names,” protested Anko. “Do you even know if it’s a girl or a boy yet?”

“No.” Naruto’s eyes slid to her teammate, who’d begun to pout at the mention of gender determination. “Tsunade bet it’s a boy so Sakura bet it’d be a girl and then Shizune-san stepped in and said that since they both have a financial interest in my child that she was now the only one qualified to check on the fetus.”

Sakura’s lips pursed in displeasure.

“But,” continued Naruto, swallowing some lettuce. “We did agree not to name the baby after anyone. At this rate,” she eyed the trashcan mournfully, “I’m going to wind up naming the kid Menma after a ramen withdrawal. I don’t even like menma!”

“Oh my god you will not.” Sakura looked equal parts horrified and completely convinced that name would be a top contender.

Anko nodded sincerely. “I like it. Unusual, but a continuation of a family theme.”

“I forbid you from naming my godchild Menma,” Sakura blanched.

Naruto rolled her eyes. “Like you’d do any better, you’d probably name your kid Salad.”

“I would not!” hissed the medic-nin, before launching into a list of all of the reasons why ramen toppings and other condiments shouldn’t be considered potential names.

Naruto started listing various salad ingredients she knew of in counterpoint.

Anko sighed and turned up the volume on the television.

* * *

 

“You are forbidden from naming my godchild, Bolt.” Sakura set her drink down on the counter with a bit too much force, fruity liquid spilling on to the countertop.

“Or Rex,” added Sasuke, calmly sipping his sake.

“Yes,” Sakura hiccoughed. “Or Rex. Or Rover, or Spot, or Blondie—“

“I like Blondie,” contributed Sai. “It will be either appropriate or ironic, depending on the child’s appearance—”

Sakura slapped a hand to Sai’s mouth, harder than she probably intended as the boy nearly wobbled off his stool.

“You are not allowed to make sugggesstioonnss,” she said, slurring the last words.

Naruto sipped at her water in amusement, enjoying riling up her companions and leaning back into the warmth of the one closest to her.

“Ahh,” Naruto felt her backrest speak up, the rumble of his words rolling through her.

“I don’t see anything wrong with calling it Puppy until it’s old enough to choose a name for itself.”

“Sensei,” stressed Sakura, arms flailing. “You can’t call your baby Puppy!”

“It’s better than Tadpole,” Kakashi murmured.

“Hey!” Naruto puffed out her cheeks in indignation.

“It is better than Tadpole,” agreed Sasuke as he finished his drink.

“Does this mean that you chose your name, Senpai?” Sai asked Kakashi, dark eyes curious.

Kakashi’s eye crinkled in a smile. “We could always call it Nadeshiko, for a girl.”

“No.” Three-fifths of the table agreed in chorus.

* * *

 

“I’m currently in favor of Apple,” Naruto told the Kazekage over lunch, hand resting over the now visible curve of her belly.

Gaara blinked slowly. “It is a stand-out name,” he commented in a politic fashion, clearly not certain how he was supposed to respond in this discussion.

Sakura whimpered from her stance behind Naruto’s shoulder and threw a despairing look at Gaara’s aide.

Temari hid her smile behind her hand. “Would that be for a girl or a boy, Naruto-chan?”

“That’s why it’s so great,” babbled Naruto enthusiastically. “It could work for either!”

* * *

 

“Are you certain you don’t want to know whether the baby is a boy or girl before it’s born?” Iruka fretted as he sorted through the selection of baby clothes at the market with Naruto.

“It would make shopping a bit easier,” sighed Kurenai. “But the shower is over now, so they might as well wait until its born.”

Naruto had gotten quite a few useful things in the baby shower, but Kurenai told her she’d need a whole lot more baby outfits if she was going to keep her sanity in tact and avoid doing laundry every hour of the day.

Naruto was alarmed that a baby could be that messy and was horrified at the dark, shadowed look in Kurenai’s eyes when she spoke on the topic, implying that _she’d seen things_.

Naruto controlled her shudder. “No. We don’t want to know until the baby is born, but they’re all pastels—I doubt that the baby will care what we put it in anyway, as long as its clean and comfy.”

Iruka shifted his weight uncertainly, still not entirely comfortable about being dragged around for this particular shopping trip. “Hatake-san told me you were thinking about naming the baby Sousuke or Minako, is that true? Those names sound nice.”

“Yeah, we’ve talked about that.” Naruto nodded her head knowingly. “But I’m just not so sure about naming the baby after some the main characters of Icha Icha books.”

Iruka’s eyes widened and he spluttered incoherently before sharing an alarmed look with Kurenai.

“I’ve been leaning toward Retasu, myself _._ I’ve just really grown to appreciate lettuce during this whole pregnancy thing.” Naruto winced at an exceptionally hard kick from her newest tenant. “On second thought, I don’t think the baby likes that.”

Kurenai beamed and Iruka relaxed his shoulders in relief.

“But Chidori sounds good. Or maybe Rasen.” Naruto hummed as she continued down the aisles, pretending she couldn’t hear the hasty conversation behind her in which Kurenai and Iruka were conspiring to steal her child’s birth certificate.

* * *

 

“Senpai told me it was a boy, congratulations!” Yamato’s smile was wide as he escorted a very pregnant and waddling Naruto home from the Hokage Tower one evening when Kakashi was unavailable.

“Oh he did, did he?” Naruto smiled back at the man and took his offered arm, not even pretending she wasn’t going to lean on him for balance. “Yes, we’re very excited.”

“So, now that you know it’s a boy, does that narrow down your list of names?” Yamato turned toward her expectantly.

“We’ve been thinking about Noritaka,” said Naruto, face serene.

Yamato stopped in his tracks. “Respect for the law? You’re going to give your son a name that means ‘respect for the law’?” Yamato sighed and began walking again. “I don’t know why I’m even surprised. Of course you would name your child something like that.”

Naruto laughed and patted his arm consolingly.

* * *

 

“You know,” mumbled Naruto sleepily, in the earliest hours of the morning, while the world was dark and calm and quiet and she’d just come back to bed after what felt like her thirteenth bathroom trip in the past three hours. “We really do have to decide on a name for her.”

Kakashi grunted affirmatively next to her, but didn’t open his eyes. Naruto was cocooned with pillows and sleeping dogs, various parts of her aching body supported from all sides when she wasn’t kicking everyone out of the bed and complaining about being too hot.

It made it a bit awkward for Kakashi to wrap his arms around her or give her a comforting hug, but he still managed to wind his arm so that it curled around her side, enabling him to entwine his fingers with hers and rest their joined hands on top of her protruding stomach.

“Have you thought of anything you liked?” His voice was soft and low, bordering on the edge of drifting back to sleep.

“No.” Naruto sounded troubled. “I can’t think of anything. Names are so important and I,” she hesitated, tensing uncomfortably to the degree that a few tired canines raised heads to check on her. “I just don’t want her to hate it. I want it to fit her.”

“Whatever it is, it’ll be perfect.” Kakashi’s promise was gentle and firm.

Naruto sighed, tightening their handhold. “I didn’t like my name for a long time. I thought it was a boys name---that I really had been named after a ramen topping. That it was somebody’s idea of a joke given to an orphan on the spur of the moment because no one cared to think further on it. Just more proof that I was unwanted.” Her voice trailed off toward the end of her sentence, quivering and thick.

Kakashi shifted in the bed, poking a few of the dogs until they moved so he could move closer and wrap his other arm around her shoulders. He kissed the top of her head and murmured into her ear. “You were never, never unwanted. Not for one minute.”

Naruto blinked back the tears that she was prone to giving in response to anything (she’d burst into tears when reading Academy student profiles for Tsunade only earlier that day, much to the Hokage’s dismay). She turned her head into Kakashi’s chest and spent a few minutes collecting herself.

“I know that now,” she finally replied. “But I didn’t for a long time. There was no one to tell me so.”

“Well,” Kakashi said thoughtfully, stroking her arm gently with his fingers. “If something happened to us, and all she had left was her name, what would you want it to tell her?”

Naruto considered the question briefly. It didn’t take her long at all to answer. She lifted her head a bit so it rested more comfortably in the curve between Kakashi’s neck and shoulder. “I’d want her to know she was loved,” she said simply. “I’d want her to know we both loved her very, very much.”

Kakashi tightened his hold on her gently, pressed a chaste kiss against her forehead. “I think that’s perfect.” He separated their joined hands so he could run his fingers over the curve of her belly, pausing as he felt their daughter kicking. “Settle down, Aiko-chan. Your mother needs some sleep.”

Naruto swallowed her giggle and rapidly blinked her eyes to hold back the nonsensical tears.

Kakashi’s silver eye caught hers, playful glint barely detectable in the lack of light. “It’s not too late to name her Naoko,” he said sincerely.

“Obedient child?” Naruto laughed, curling into him and pushing another pillow under her back. “That’s just wishful thinking. Aiko-chan is much better.”

A few of the dogs rumbled their agreement and the matter was settled.


End file.
